Monday, October 26, 2009

Fewer Firearms, More Ammo

I was checking out the Survivalist Forums today and one post discussed how many and what kinds of firearms one should have. While I am all for having a nice armory, there are a couple of things to consider if you aren't independently wealthy. First, firearms cost money. Good firearms usually cost more. Second, you can only fire so many weapons at once. Here's my quick take on firearms.

Have a small selection of firearms for multiple purposes (a rifle, shotgun, and handgun for starters).

Choose firearms with the type of ammo they use in mind. It's a good idea to choose firearms that use common types of ammo that is easily available. The more unusual and unique the firearm/ammo, the more difficult it will be to find ammo.

The wider range of firearms you have with varying types of ammo needed, the more your resources will be spread out. Better to have fewer basic firearms with lots of ammo for each.

Choose quality firearms. Cheap piece-of-crap firearms are more likely to fail than quality firearms. Quality firearms also tend to hold their value better.

Spend much more on ammo than you do firearms. You don't want to have more firearms than ammo...after you run out of ammo you will need to resort to beating someone with your useless firearm or running, both bad options.

Having a few spare firearms above the small cache that you usually use can be good for bartering.

Stock up on ammo! The more you have, the better off you will be for a number of reasons. The cost if brass isn't getting any lower. Ammo is also a good barter items. Unless you reload your own ammo, you are subject to the whim of the market on both price and availability. You never know how long you will have to hold out on your own with only the ammo you have.

Do your own experiments to find the best firearms/types of ammo that work for you. While it is fine to read up on these things and it's nice to get opinions from friends, the best way to figure out what works for you is actually trying a variety of firearms and experimenting with various types of ammo.